Wayne Palmer - Characterization

Characterization

The brother of former President David Palmer, Wayne came in to replace Mike Novick as the President's Chief of Staff, after Palmer had relieved Novick of his duties at the end of Season Two. He is a veteran Marine. He also has a sister named Sandra Palmer. After high school, he received a baseball scholarship to Stanford University, where he was a pitcher and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He went on to receive his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. It is presumed that, like his brother, Wayne Palmer is a Democrat.

Before being employed by the President, Palmer was a member of the United States Marine Corps, though he did not see combat. At some point after being discharged, Palmer worked as an Attorney at Law for Anderson & Siebertz. Afterwards, he served as a COO for Milliken Enterprises, a business owned by Alan Milliken, a high-powered businessman backer of his brother. While Milliken was hospitalized with a stroke, Wayne embarked upon an affair with Milliken's wife, Julia.

Wayne Palmer is currently married, although his spouse is neither mentioned nor seen on screen.

Although Wayne has experienced the difficulty of resolving crises when he was Chief of Staff for his brother, he displays weakness and uncertainty when making tough decisions. He frequently enlists the advice of Karen Hayes and Tom Lennox; an example of which is when he is indecisive about whether Hamri Al-Assad is the man orchestrating the many terrorist attacks in the country, and not Abu Fayed. It is later revealed that it was in fact Fayed, and his decision to kill Assad (which was unsuccessful largely due to the actions of Jack Bauer) causes Wayne to realize his inability to make tough decisions quickly.